“There was not one woman in my class who ever said, ‘Will we get to do what we want to do? Will that be OK?’ Rather, the conversation was, ‘We want to do this, and this is what we’re going to do.’ Nobody hesitated. So much of that is attributed to the Marymount education, and I’m so grateful every day for that,” she said.

Lucci, who created the iconic character Erica Kane on ABC’s All My Children and now stars on Lifetime’s Devious Maids, received the Alumna of Achievement Award at the Marymount Alumnae Awards Ceremony at Fordham’s Rose Hill campus on Saturday.

She later posted a photo of herself at the ceremony with Brigid Driscoll, RSHM, former president of Marymount, calling Sister Driscoll the “Dynamo behind us all.”

“I will never forget her leadership and support. … I will always treasure the education I received,” wrote Lucci, who also gave shout-outs to Maura Gaines, PhD, MC ’58, and the former head of the Marymount drama department, “the late outstanding Mr. Ronald Weyand.”

Lucci was one of three alumnae honored at the annual event, which was part of Fordham’s Jubilee weekend.

“These three women have shaped our world, supported their alma mater, and been a source of pride for all Marymount graduates and the order of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary,” said Jean Wynn, MC ’80, vice president of the Marymount Alumnae Association Board of Directors.

Mary Donohue, MC ’79, received the Gloria Gaines Memorial Award, given in recognition of service to community, church, and college. Donohue has served in leadership roles in the Marymount alumnae community since 1985 and spearheaded community service projects at employers including JPMorgan and Bank of America.

The Golden Dome Award went to Kay Delaney Bring, MC ’60, in recognition of her commitment to advance the legacy of Marymount College.

A groundbreaking female executive in the media industry, Delaney Bring joined CNN in 1980, helping to launch the cable channel’s New York office. She retired 25 years later as executive vice president of CNN International.

She has named the Marymount Legacy Fund as the beneficiary of a $500,000 life insurance policy. To date, it’s the single largest gift to the fund, which was established to preserve the Marymount name and tradition of preparing women for leadership roles. The fund provides financial support to female Fordham students who embody the Marymount spirit.

Lucci, Donohue, and Delaney joined the newly minted Butler Society, a community of Marymount women who have received the alumnae board’s highest honors through the years. The society will serve as an advisory panel to the alumnae board.

Joseph M. McShane, SJ, president of Fordham, commended the 90 alumnae present for carrying on the ideals of Marymount and its founder, Mother Marie Joseph Butler, RHSM, even though the college is no longer in operation.

“Your spirit is a clear indication that the spirit of Marymount and the vision of Mother Butler are not only alive but vibrantly alive,”Father McShane said. “You are treasured, honored, much-loved members of the larger Fordham family.”

Fordham pre-med student Christina Dowe was among those in attendance. The rising senior, whose mother graduated from Marymount, is a recipient of the Marymount Legacy Fund Scholarship. She’s grateful to be a part of the Marymount legacy and for the support of its alumnae.

“This community is so enthusiastic about empowering young girls to go out into the world and become leaders,” Dowe said.

—Jennifer Spencer

On June 6, Joseph M. McShane, SJ, president of Fordham, welcomed alumni back to the Rose Hill campus for Jubilee weekend.

On hand were Michael Mitchell, PhD, FCRH ’65, and his wife Ina, to celebrate Michael’s becoming a Golden Ram.

After Father McShane’s welcoming address, Ina prompted Michael to tell the story of when he decided to come to Fordham. As he told his tale, Michael slowly unbuttoned a denim shirt to reveal a faded T-shirt emblazoned with the cover art from Aldous Huxley’s 1932 novel, Brave New World.

Fifty years ago, Mitchell said, he sat on a bench gazing at the campus, contemplating whether he’d like to attend Fordham. He had yet to sign on the dotted line, when a Jesuit approached and asked him what he was reading.

“Brave New World,” Mitchell told him.

“What’s the message?” the Jesuit asked.

“Not, ‘What’s it about?’ he asked me, ‘What’s the message?’ No one had ever asked me that, not in high school, not ever,” recalled Mitchell.

He attempted an answer that he assumed would mollify the priest.

“It’s about the soul of man,” he said grandly.

The Jesuit continued, “What do you mean by that?”

“I said, ‘It’s about tradition and modernity,’ but that wasn’t enough. He kept probing me and pressing me for more answers until finally he said, ‘Keep reading.’ Then he left.”

“I thought, ‘What did I just walk into?’”

Mitchell did decide to attend Fordham. He was one of very few African Americans to do so in that year, 1965. He went on to get his doctorate in political science and now teaches at the University of Arizona.

He quoted Father McShane’s welcoming address to describe the way that he teaches his students today: “to think critically, read analytically, write persuasively, and speak eloquently.”

Hank Shotwell, PhD, FCRH ’65, another Golden Ram, recalled classes in logic, epistemology, philosophy, and psychology.

“My Fordham education gave me tools that I didn’t appreciate until long after I left,” he said. “They taught me how to think.”

On returning to the campus after so many years, Shotwell said he felt like a “deer in headlights” with all the new buildings and physical changes.

Liz Fitzgerald, FCRH ’85, said that the new Starbucks on Fordham Road took her by surprise more than anything else. She and fellow classmates said that positive changes just off campus were as welcome a sight as any improvements on the campus itself—a sign that the dangerous days of the Bronx are fading.

Still, Joe Moorhead, FCRH ’96, head coach of Fordham Football, told a crowd of alumni at the Gabelli School of Business that he constantly reminds his players that disparities in the Bronx remain.

“There are people two blocks from this campus who don’t know where they’re going to put their head at night, and we make sure our players know that,” said Moorhead, adding that last season the football team logged in more than 500 hours of community service.

Although Rosemary Carr, MC ’60, appreciated the beauty inside of University Church, she noted that the University Church and Rose Hill are not stored in Marymount alumnae’s memory banks. The Fordham Marymount campus, sold seven years ago, was in Tarrytown.

Instead, her memories included nuns in full habit that taught elocution, conservative dress, and modest behavior to her and her and classmates.

As Carr spoke, three stylish young women in skirts and jeans from the Class of 2010 slipped into the last pew, knelt, made the sign of the cross, and prayed.

One of the girls, Bridget Murphy, FCRH ’10, said returning to the campus five years after graduating made her feel like time stands still.

“You come back here and it’s exactly the same.”

That would be Heather Lind and Christina Bennett Lind (both FCLC ’05), who played twin siblings Sebastian and Viola in their eighth-grade production of the comedy.

No jest, though. Heather and Christina are twin sisters, and this past summer, they earned big roles on stage and screen. Heather performed in the Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park productions of The Winter’s Tale and The Merchant of Venice. And Christina is playing Bianca Montgomery on ABC’s long-running daytime drama All My Children.

Heather earned her roles last spring, while completing her M.F.A. in acting at NYU, and began three months of intense rehearsals for the plays, which ran in repertory in June and July at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park.

“You start to think in iambic pentameter,” says Heather, who performed opposite Al Pacino in The Merchant of Venice. “But I feel lucky to be consumed by it. You don’t get a chance to do Shakespeare that often, and to work here [at the Delacorte]has always been a huge dream.”

In Los Angeles, Christina made another kind of debut, as the daughter of Erica Kane, the character played by daytime legend Susan Lucci, MC ’68. New to L.A. and the realm of soap operas—“a whole alien universe of beautiful people”—Christina’s experiencing some of the fan frenzy that follows, mostly “tweets with bits of encouragement” or free advice, like “‘you should be meaner to David,’” a character on All My Children.

Raised in Guilderland, N.Y., the twins embraced the arts from early on. Their father is a painter and an educator at a museum and their mother is a ballet and nursery school teacher. Both sisters dreamed of being in New York and together chose to enroll in Fordham College at Lincoln Center, where they majored in theatre performance and studied abroad—Christina in Orvieto, Italy, and Heather at the London Dramatic Academy.

“There was never any fallback plan,” Christina says.

The two tight-knit sisters also share an amiable case of sibling rivalry.

“There’s always a sense of competition and mutual respect,” Heather says. “It’s been easier to cheer each other on when each person is having their own successes. We’re very lucky.”

– Rachel Buttner